Today was an emotionally draining day, so it’s especially nice to look back at three beautiful things from the past week:

1. We think Posey had a mild stroke a two weeks ago, because she’s had less control over her back legs recently. In the last couple days, there have been some incontinence issues. And this morning she practically laid down in her water dish. We thought the end might be nigh. Posey, though, has informed us that she’d like a lot more wet food, though, and that if we’ll keep giving her that, she’s happy to keep getting up and purring every time we walk into the kitchen. We’ve made her a little nest out of the bottom of a cat carrier and a towel, so hopefully that will help with what I need to clean up. Being 15, none of this is really surprising, but I’ll take each additional day I get with her right now.

2. For several years, I’ve been trying to figure out a type of tree that I see growing around D.C., but that I never came across back home. Today, finally, I saw yellow flowers on one, in addition to these ubiquitous seed pods, which gave me the additional search term to determine the answer: It’s a Chinese golden rain tree.

3. One of the orchards at our farmers market grows grapes, and this past weekend, they had four seedless varieties, all of which were particularly delicious to snack on chilled from the fridge.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Nearly two weeks ago, I seriously scraped up my knee getting into the pool (the perils of swimming at the shallower pool by the library). Because of its location on a joint, it stayed red and angry far longer than any scrape I’ve had in a while, but it’s finally healing nicely. I can now scratch nearby bug bites without fear of re-opening it!

2. Life at work has been stressful this summer. Some of that is beyond my control — organizational changes, project deadlines — but some of it can be chalked up to some habits I’ve fallen into. This week, I took a stab at righting the ship by taking a lunch break every day. I hope to be able to carry that on into September.

3. I rode home on the train the other day with a woman sporting a gorgeous flowered dress, magenta hair, a Hello Kitty-shaped lunch box, and heart-shaped flowers or balloons painted on her toenails.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world recently?

Thursday, so it’s time to look back on three beautiful things from my past week:

1. D.C. was in the area of 85% or so coverage during Monday’s solar eclipse. While Rudi traveled with friends down to the path of totality, I took my chances by staying in D.C. Pleasantly, my office got enough eclipse glasses for the staff, so shortly before the time of maximum coverage, my coworkers and I trekked over to the pocket park where we assemble for fire drills, put on our glasses, and were quite impressed:

Those shots — the first two around that maximum coverage point and the last one about an hour later — are taken through my glasses. I was especially pleased with our view after I stepped out an hour later to find it raining (although obviously it then cleared enough to catch that bottom shot). Rudi had a friend who traveled 500+ miles to catch the eclipse in totality only to have it obscured by clouds for exactly those three minutes.

2. Everyone else was away this weekend, so my friend Shawn came over to my side of town and we hung out for the latter part of Saturday.

3. After spending Sunday afternoon at the pool, I really wanted an ice cream cone. That pool is right next to the grocery store, so I decided to buy a box of cones to go with the ice cream we picked up Friday night. And then I decided we needed a container of rainbow sprinkles in which to dip the cones.

(Apologies for the blurriness. The cone was melting really fast!)

How about you? What was beautiful in your world this week?

It’s Thursday, which means it’s time to look back on three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Downtown D.C. spends a lot of money on flowers, regularly replanting tree boxes and planters. Last week, these hibiscuses showed up on one block.

2. I’ve mentioned before that since the advent of the inflatable movie screen, outdoor film showings have really taken off. Tonight we headed across town to watch the live action version of Beauty and the Beast with several hundred other fans of Belle. While I don’t know that I loved it as much as the original cartoon, I still liked it quite a bit. And, yes, my heart fluttered a bit in the library scene.

3. We were walking home from a protest rally last Sunday when we discovered one of the fancy French restaurants in the next neighborhood was selling house-made ice cream out front. I might not be able to afford a whole dinner there, but I can definitely afford a couple cones. I mean, check out that weird wafer cone! Mine has a scoop of lemon verbena ice cream and a scoop of black currant sorbet. Both were delicious.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Cooler weather means an open window instead of air conditioning.

2. As I walk home from a cafe, I’m filled with affection for my neighborhood.

3. A night at the ballpark in August where long sleeves are desirable. Who could ask for more?

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world recently?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. As I mentioned, my friends Amani and Marcus made a small person whom they named Ayinde. We had the pleasure of making his adorable, gurgling, chubby-cheeked acquaintance mere hours before his four-week anniversary.

2. My mother has a gift for growing things, and their house offers many places to do so. July is always a gorgeous time to spend in their yard.

3. A downpour arrived this evening in a zero-to-sixty type race, hung around splashing people for half an hour or so, and then retreated in the face of a double rainbow.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?